Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Children’s Environmental Health
The mission of the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS) at Utrecht University is to provide education and research on the human health risks, including children’s health, of exposure to potentially harmful agents in the environment, at the workplace, and through the food chain. The interdisciplinary research conducted at IRAS focuses on risks of chemical, biological, and physical agents in the general environment. Food safety and veterinary public health issues are major research areas within the institute.
In the area of children’s environmental health, IRAS places a special emphasis on examining the health effects resulting from exposures occurring during the pre- and post-natal periods of development. Major children’s environmental health research efforts are devoted to examining the health risks of exposure to traffic related air pollutants, electromagnetic fields, persistent organic pollutants, endocrine disrupting compounds, allergens, and biocides.
|Mail Address||Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences
PO Box 80177, NL
3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands
|Website Link||Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences|
|Collaborators||The Chulabhorn Research and Graduate Institute, Bangkok, Thailand
The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
|Chemicals/Exposures Studied||Food contaminants, air pollution, electronic waste, flame retardants, endocrine disrupting compounds, persistent organic pollutants|
|Health or Social Effects Studied||Hormone synthesis, neurodevelopmental processes, and immunology|
|Population(s) Studied||Laboratory research is mostly directed to identify risks of chemicals from a mechanistic point of view on sensitive subpopulations, such as breastfed infants and toddlers|